March 17, 2020 Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR WAYNE SCHOOL DISTRICT HELD AT WAYNE MIDDLE SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY MARCH 17th, 2020 AT 6:00 PM.

THOSE PRESENT:

Conducting: Curtis Whipple

ADMINISTRATION

Curtis Whipple called the meeting to order. 

Curtis welcomes everyone and leads the pledge of allegiance. Cory offers a reverence.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: 

Cory motions to approve the minutes. Shawn seconds the motion. All in favor.

Curtis opens it up for public comments on school fees. No comments.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

April makes a motion to pay A/P. Shawn makes a second. All in favor.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

No comments

INFORMATION ITEMS

Superintendent Fahey covers details on the school closure plan. He states that a significant amount of training has been happening. 

Tyler discusses the school lunch plan. Lunch will be delivered in each community throughout the district. 

Superintendent continues to talk about how activities and sports will be canceled. 

Curtis asks questions about school lunch if the supplies will be available and if the standards have been relaxed at all. Tyler mentions that our supplier was contacted and they assured us that we can get everything needed. No information has been provided on amending the standards.

Cherie Blackburn speaks about her dismissal plan. This will involve a combination of online instruction and some assignments that are sent home. Parents will be able to pick up or drop off assignments through the lunch distribution process. Parents will go in and pick up iPads on Thursday and get instructions on how to access Canvas and help kids do homework.

Andrea will be putting out instructions on the website for how parents can access Canvas. She will also send home instructions with the iPads. 

April says that parents aren’t teachers and parents don’t have time to sit down with kids for extended periods and provide that instruction. 

Cherie has worked with teachers to emphasize that the instruction should be on the essentials. 

Jeff asks if teachers are going to be available for parents to contact. Cherie responds that teachers will be available from 1-3 for parent help. 

Lance Peterson reviews the middle school plan. They have tried to keep parents apprised of everything that is happening. They will be delivering instruction through Canvas. They are striving to make everything consistent for all students. He stresses that he wants the kids to see teachers’ faces every day. They will have something daily from each of their core subjects. This should take 20-30 minutes in each subject. There will also be a brief assessment on students to ensure that students are involved and engaged every day in class. Non-core classes will be reduced even further. The goal is to help them focus on the cores of Math, Science, Language, Social Studies. They have established office hours, which are listed on the website. Teachers will be able to reach out to students in a live format (Google Hangout). 

Cherie states that she feels well supported by Andrea and that the teachers have plenty of resources to use. 

Lance states that there are some concerns and a bit of anxiety as people are doing things they have never done, but also a level of confidence as they see they can progress and move through it.

Shawn asks the administrators how it works with kids to pick up books. The principals have set times already. This gives kids the opportunity to come in one-by-one and ask any final questions to teachers. 

Dr. Chappell says that the direction is for kids to avoid contact with elderly. This needs to be considered when putting plans in place. 

Mary Bray covers plans for the high school. They are well-versed in Canvas and expect kids to be able to use it easily. They are scheduled to come in Thursday to get books and iPads. She says that some smaller classes will be held at the school. There will be time slots available for students to come in if necessary. Testing will be open if kids need to come in and take a test. 

Curtis asks about sanitizing as kids come in and out. Jeff suggests having a hand sanitizer station right as they walk in. April asks if they are focusing only on core class. Mary responds that they are going to try to do all courses. The focus will shift towards project-based work. 

Superintendent speaks about how everyone has been very flexible and we continue to adapt. 

April says that everyone will need to be patient with others.

Curtis thanks everyone for their part and stresses that communication continues to parents as often as possible. 

There are questions about the budget and how employees may be affected. Tyler addresses that there are lots of projects for employees to do and there is no intent to perform any type of lay-offs. The state is not intending to require additional days at the end of the school year to make up these days.

Curtis asks how this could affect graduation. Superintendent and Mary state that there will be interventions to assist those who need extra help.

Jamie Webb gives an update on Special Ed. They will be using the same resources as general ed to meet the service minutes. They are going to attempt to do speech therapy online as soon as the provider enables it. 

Curtis asks if the HIPAA guidelines are going to be relaxed for this. Jamie says that therapists should be able to reach out to kids and provide services. Dr. Chappell mentions that there will be some additional stress at home. It will be a tough time for many families.

Curtis thanks everyone for being committed and putting the best interest of kids at the forefront. 

BUSINESS ITEMS

April makes a motion to table all first and second readings. Cory seconds. All in favor.

April makes a motion to approve school fees for 2020-2021. Shawn seconds. All in favor.

Shawn makes a motion to approve the golf schedule. April seconds. All in favor.

Cory makes a motion to approve new hires. April seconds. All in favor. 

Cory makes a motion to approve employee separations. Shawn seconds. All in favor.

April says she went to Loa school community council and told them her idea about using Trust Lands funds to pay for capital projects. She suggested we get associations within the county that pay into the trust lands program to lobby for this change. April told the community council that it was their money and they need to be the ones pushing for the change. The Loa community council seemed to be really interested in attending these meetings in Salt Lake and getting a push for changes.

Cory brings up the Ad Hoc committee changes to the roles and responsibilities document. He and April went through and made some edits. Curtis comments that many of the changes are good and recommends we spend a bit more time going over it. They plan on discussing it at the next board meeting, making final changes, and then approving in May.

Cory makes a motion to go into closed session per Utah Code Annotated Section 52-4-205(1)(a) at 7:28 pm. April seconds

Curtis calls for a vote.

Resume open session at 8:42 pm.

Curtis adjourns the meeting.

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